First post!

As some of you know, about a year ago, Bill and I started preparing to move to Tanzania.  That's the extent of what most of you know, and some of you have just at this very moment become aware of what may now seem like an out-of-the-blue plan.  Sorry for that.  We're bad communicators.  The year has flown by (well, the second half of it has) and we are now left with exactly three scrawny, insubstantial, little weeks before we take off from Philadelphia on what is sure to be a fantastic chapter or two in our lives. 

First, to get the usual, tedious questions out of the way:
Yes, the water is potable.
Yes, we've gotten shots.
Yes, we'll be living in a "real house."
....Yes, with electricity and even some internet.
No, we do not speak Swahili (though, yes, we're trying to learn).
No, we're not planning on coming back adoptive parents.
No, we won't have to worry about "child soldiers".
No, lions won't be jumping into our covered wagons, or whatever version of that your imagination allows.

Bill and I are moving to Tanzania because we have been accepted by the Tanzanian Children's Fund as Long Term Volunteers at their orphanage in Karatu where we will live and teach until mid-July.  The orphanage itself is located on the outer slope of the Ngorongoro crater and is home to 69 children in a Children's Village.  Each house in the Children's Village holds approximately a dozen children, two Tanzanian housemothers, and two volunteers such as Bill and myself.  The children are raised as brothers and sisters, offering them strong sense of family ties.

Our official positions at the Children's Village have not yet been determined, but based on their needs and how we ranked each position for ourselves when we applied, we will each be placed as either an English teacher at the Gyetighi Primary School, an Athletics Director at the Gyetighi Primary School, a pre-school teacher in the Children's Village, or an English & Confidence teacher for older students within the Childrens's Village.  Bill has his hopes on working with the older kids, where I am split between the first and third option (though this may be my time to shine in kickball).

We will have Sundays off, and long-term volunteers are required to take a few extra days off per month at the Children's Village, so we will definitely be able to fill our blog with attempts at capturing the beauty surrounding us at the Ngorongoro crater on hikes and day-trips.  We plan on keeping our loved and liked ones at home and around the globe informed on our adventures, adaptation, and other goings-on in, to, and from Tanzania (with some minor censorship for parents and siblings).  Bill is bringing his fancy camera, my mother donated a Flip camcorder, and we even purchased a crappy. used, little netbook on eBay to help us put everything together on our downtime.

For you letter-writing types, we're not certain at the moment what address will be most effective in reaching us, but the postal address for the Children's Village is as follows:
Tanzanian Children's Fund
P.O. Box 1935
Arusha, Tanzania

If you'd really like to help us out, or at least put a few smiles on our faces, you could send us some postcards or see the TCF's Wish List to donate much needed items to the kids we'll be working with.

I don't want to let the length of this post run too long, so I will cut things off here with a few key requests:

1.  Visit our blog often!  Now that I know we're going to have our own laptop while we're there, I can invite with confidence all of you to keep up with us on our adventure.

2. As you might expect, working with orphans on a long-term basis will be a new experience for both of us, and, although we are certain this will be one of the most enriching experiences of our lifetimes, it will be therapeutic to see the familiar faces of those we love from time to time.  If you have the means and the time, and since we'll have access to at least our own computer while we're there, feel free to send us a video postcard to save to our hard drive before we leave (or even after, though there's no guaranteeing we'll have a connection fast enough to download it completely) for us to revisit at the end of the more trying days.

3. If you'd like cross paths with Bill and/or myself, or if you'd like to reach us for any other reason, please feel free to.  You'll have to call my number, as Bill's phone had died.

Thanks to all of you for offering your friendship, love, and/or guidance over the past year and beyond.  Your support in this decision and our other major and minor steps has been invaluable.